Honda RC213V-S

In a move that should surprise no one, Honda has begun taking early orders for its controversial RC213V-S superbike at a confirmed price of €200,000 in the UK.

A quick visit to the bike’s dedicated microsite shows a message from Honda, indicating that anybody interested in purchasing the bike must fill out a form to become eligible for first dibs on the road-going version of its MotoGP machine. The company’s taking orders until September 30, 2015, giving prospective owners enough time to seriously consider whether spending that much money on a bike with less power than a Honda Fireblade is worth all the trouble.

It’s not unprecedented for a company to offer pre-orders for a product, especially if said product is generating enormous interest from the market. In some ways, the RC213V-s fits that criteria, although I’m not certain if that’s a good thing or a bad thing for the supposed superbike.

The highly anticipated machine generated a lot of shaky buzz when it was revealed that it only had 159 horsepower in the UK and Europe. To be fair, a sports kit could bump the output to as much as 219 horsepower. More startingly, the US market will only get 101 horsepower out of the same bike and because of EPA regulations, the aforementioned sports kit will not available in the US.

Honda also took a curious approach of charging UK customers in Euros because in its own words, it would help the company “deal with fluctuations in the market making the bike more expensive in certain markets at certain times”.

Should you be interested in buying the RC213V-S, you’re required to fill out the aforementioned form, although that still won’t guarantee you the bike. There’s still a lot of hoops and holes to go through, including a consultation with Honda and various other procedures that will determine whether an owner is fit to own the bike.

One final thing: Honda’s early order for the superbike only applies to the US, Europe, Japan, and Australia markets. Should you come from a market under the “others” category, Honda has made it clear that you can only ride the bike in closed courses. Oh, the bike also won’t have any warrant and all expenses incurred by its maintenance, including transportation fees, will be shouldered by the prospective owner.

In other words, purchasing the Honda RC213V-S is beginning to look more and more like a hassle than anything else. It’s a lot less powerful than we all thought and has a price tag that would put even some of today’s supercars to shame.

That’s not exactly the kind of bike you’d think is worth all the trouble.

Continue reading to read more about Honda’s early order option for the RC213V-S superbike.}